Brazilians ‘struggling to breathe’ as Amazon burns

ByAFP
August 20, 2024

Porto Velho is the capital of Rondonia state - Copyright AFP Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS
Orlando Junior

Residents of Porto Velho in the Brazilian Amazon have barely seen sunlight in days as a thick cloud of smoke from forest fires envelops their city.

“We are struggling to breathe,” said 30-year-old teacher Tayane Moraes, one of some 460,000 people who live in the city near the border with Bolivia.

On Tuesday, the concentration of cancer-causing microparticles known as PM2.5 reached 56.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air in Porto Velho — 11 times more than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization and the worst of Brazil’s big cities.

Inhaling PM2.5 has been found to increase the risk of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and a range of other health problems.

On August 14, the level was a “dangerous” 246.4 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the IQAir monitoring company.

It can be difficult to escape the smoke, even at home.

“It’s terrible, yesterday I woke up at midnight and my eyes were tingling because of this smoke entering my house,” 62-year-old retiree Carlos Fernandes told AFP.

The government of Rondonia state believes illegal fires, often started by farmers clearing land, are one cause of the disaster and has launched an online campaign calling on the population to report them.

– Historic drought –

According to data collected by satellites of Brazil’s INPE Space Research Institute, Rondonia has just had its worst month of July for forest fires in 19 years with 1,618 confirmed outbreaks.

So far in August, there have been 2,114.

The Amazon as a whole has recorded more than 42,000 forest fires from January 1 to August 19, according to the INPE, the worst number in nearly two decades.

That number was 87 percent higher than in the same period of 2023.

The Amazon suffered a historic drought between June and November last year.

INPE’s satellite images show a plume of smoke crossing Brazil from north to south, also passing through neighbors Bolivia and Paraguay.

State authorities insist much of the smoke enveloping Porto Velho, its capital, comes from fires in Bolivia, to the west, and the neighboring state of Amazonas, to the north.

“Because we are in the center of the continent, the smoke stays longer here,” Cae Aires of the CENSIPAM Amazon protection center said in a video published on the Instagram account of Rondonia governor Marcos Rocha.

In the same video, infectious disease specialist Antonieta Ferreira reported “an increase in asthma attacks, as well as cases of pneumonia or sinusitis” among patients at a children’s hospital.

“It’s complicated with all this smoke, especially for those who have breathing problems,” sighed Beatriz Graca, a 35-year-old homemaker in Porto Velho.

Forest fires have increased even as deforestation — which helps reduce global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide — is on the wane.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged to put a stop to illegal deforestation of the Amazon by 2030.

The practice had dramatically worsened under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

Pro-Palestine DNC delegates welcome Biden’s exit but side-eye Harris


By AFP
August 21, 2024

Pro-Palestine activists outside the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois, on August 19, 2024 - Copyright AFP Alex WROBLEWSKI
Paula RAMON

Though there are only a handful of them among thousands of delegates, the “Uncommitted Movement” delegates at the Democratic National Convention are among the most vocal.

The delegates plan to voice their discontent with the war in Gaza at the party’s convention this week in Chicago, during which Vice President Kamala Harris will formally accept the Democratic Party’s nomination in the close race for the White House.

The 30 “Uncommitted Movement” delegates hail from eight different US states and claim to represent some 700,000 voters.

Though they welcomed the news of President Joe Biden dropping out of the race on July 21, they have met Harris’s subsequent ascension with caution and skepticism.

“The party needed change,” Minnesota delegate Asma Mohammed told AFP. “I don’t feel sad about someone who has unapologetically supported a genocidal regime in Israel.”

Mohammed came to Chicago hoping to see a renewed perspective within her party, but she said she is disappointed that the convention has no pro-Palestinian voices on the speaker list.

“I know she’s (Harris) more empathetic than Joe Biden, I’ve seen that,” Mohammed said. “But those words are not enough. That needs to be followed by policy.”

The Uncommitted Movement advocated for adding Tanya Haj-Hassan to the speaker list, wanting the thousands of attendees to hear from a doctor who has treated victims of the conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas in Gaza.

However, all that has been permitted at the event so far is a panel at the nearby McCormick Center, outside the main venue. During the panel, the pediatrician described the horrors of war, bringing the audience to tears.

– Both sides –

Among the speakers slated for the DNC are some relatives of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 when it sparked the conflict by attacking Israel, which also left 1,199 dead, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

“Why does it have to be one or the other?” asked Mohammed, who emphasized that more than 40,000 people have died in Gaza from Israel’s retaliation, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

For her, there is room to listen to both sides.

Jacob Schonberger, a 17-year-old delegate representing the state of Connecticut, is not part of the “Uncommitted Movement” but shares the sentiment. He arrived at the convention wearing buttons with slogans in support of Israel.

“I think it should be leadership’s decision… I have my personal beliefs, but I think that it’s important to have both sides,” he said.

In addition to the “Uncommitted Movement,” protests fomented outside the United Center, the venue for the convention, where hundreds of people chanted “Free Palestine!”

Inside the arena, some delegates covered their mouths as Biden gave his speech Monday night, a gesture made in protest of his response to the war in Gaza.

“We wanted to send the message that we don’t agree with what Biden has been doing,” said Sabrene Odeh, a delegate from Washington state.

While the DNC is underway, Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is on a tour of the Middle East in a new attempt to secure a truce between Israel and Hamas.

Biden acknowledged the discontent with the death toll in Gaza during his speech Monday night.

That did not excite Yaz Kader, another Washington delegate.

“The fact is, he has been a president that has supported a genocide that Israel is committing,” he said.

Blinded in Bangladesh protests, students hope for better future

By AFP
August 21, 2024

Omar Faruq (C) lost his sight after being wounded by shotgun pellets during the student-led uprising that ousted Sheikh Hasina - Copyright AFP LUIS TATO

Arunabh SAIKIA

Bangladeshi student Omar Faruq believes the future of his country is bright but all he can see is darkness, after police trying to crush a student-led revolution blinded him with rubber pellets.

More than 450 people were killed — many by police fire — in the weeks of protests leading up to the ouster of ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India on August 5 ending her 15-year autocratic rule.

But dozens of protesters were also robbed of their vision — some in one eye, others entirely — by the plastic or rubber grapeshot pellets police fired from shotguns.

Bangladeshi security forces are accused of having resorted to excessive force to quell the protests.

“I was bombarded with pellets all over… my nose, eyes, everywhere — from close range,” said 20-year-old Faruq.

He had hitchhiked 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the northern city of Bogura to attend the protests in the capital Dhaka.

Now he is getting treatment at the National Institute of Opthalmology and Hospital (NIOH), the country’s biggest specialised eye centre.

Its records show nearly 600 people have lost at least some vision from shotgun pellets fired during the weeks of civil unrest against Hasina. Among those, 20 have been blinded completely.

Hundreds of others with pellet injuries in their eyes are undergoing treatment in smaller hospitals across Dhaka, according to local media reports.

“We were doing up to 10 surgeries at a time,” said Mohammad Abdul Qadir, NIOH’s acting director. “We have never seen such a situation before.”

– ‘Disproportionate force’ –

Rights groups discourage the use of pellets for crowd control against unarmed protestors, calling the cluster clouds of shots indiscriminate.

US-based Physicians for Human Rights has called their use “inherently inaccurate”, and potentially “lethal to humans at close range”.

The United Nations last week said there were “strong indications” Bangladeshi security forces used “unnecessary and disproportionate force”, with a team expected to visit Dhaka to investigate.

Those in the NIOH hospital, where ward after ward is filled with protesters with impaired vision, say they are witnesses to the violence.

Mohammad Abdul Alim, 34, lay writhing in pain in his bed at the hospital, several pellets still lodged in his body. His left eye was swollen and bloodshot.

“Sometimes I wish I could just cut off the left side of my face,” said Alim, visibly anguished.

“I can’t even properly see how much rice there is on my plate when I eat.”

An X-ray image of Alim’s skull seen by AFP bore testimony to his agony — dozens of pellets lodged all over.

Alim said the police gave him and his fellow protesters 20 seconds to disperse before raining them with pellets.

He said scores of people “immediately collapsed” after the shots.

– ‘Sacrifice for my country’ –

Alim said he hoped the new authorities — an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus — would “take care” of his treatment.

Yunus’s government said Tuesday it was setting up a foundation to “take care of the wounded and the families of the dead and wounded” who took part in the protests.

“We can never forget the contributions of the students and people who sacrificed their lives and who were grievously wounded while participating in the protests against the dictatorship,” Yunus said in a statement.

He vowed his government would do “whatever is needed to take good care of the wounded and families of the deceased” as soon as it could.

But, for now, the injured have only their families to fall back on.

In another ward at NIOH, Nazrul Islam stroked the hair of his younger brother Rahmatullah Sardar Shabbir, trying to comfort him.

Doctors had managed to extricate two of the three pellets that pierced the 26-year-old’s left eye on August 4 — but failed to restore his vision.

“I cannot see anything with my left eye,” said Shabbir, a law student.

But Shabbir — and almost everyone else at NIOH who have lost their vision to pellets fired at them while participating in the protests — said they had no regrets.

“It is a sacrifice for my country,” he said, a Bangladeshi flag unfurled above his bed. “We have created a new Bangladesh.”

No ‘feminist propaganda’: hit Chinese video game in censorship row


By AFP
August 21, 2024

Foreign gamers urged to avoid discussing politically sensitive topics like Covid-19 or feminism

 - Copyright AFP Hector RETAMAL

Sam DAVIES

The co-publisher of hit Chinese video game “Black Myth: Wukong” this week sent guidelines to foreign streamers urging them against discussing politically touchy topics like Covid-19 or feminism, players said.

Released globally on Tuesday, “Black Myth” rapidly became one of the most successful Chinese-made games ever, as measured by the number of players on gaming platform Steam.

It combines the classic 16th-century Chinese novel “Journey to the West” with cutting-edge graphics as gamers step into the shoes of a Monkey King to do battle with demons in a mythical world.

But in the run up to the game’s release, video streamers reported receiving a document from co-publishers Hero Games warning them to avoid topics including “feminist propaganda” or “politics” when they received a passkey to play the game, an email exchange seen by AFP showed.

Gamers were also warned against any reference to “Covid-19”, “isolation” or “quarantine” — likely a reference to China’s pandemic-era policies that placed millions under arbitrary lockdowns and sparked civil unrest.

They were also told to avoid commenting on “China’s game industry policies, opinions, news, etc”.

Benoit Reinier, a French video game content creator, confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that he had received the guidelines and shared his email exchange with the firm’s representative.

In a YouTube video, Reinier said he would not stream the game on his channel in response to the guidelines, he described as “censorship”.

“I have never seen something so shameful,” he said in the video.

“It is very clearly a document which explains to us that we must censor ourselves and we must not talk about subjects considered negative such as politics.”

– ‘Foreign bias’ –

Neither Hero Games nor the game’s developer Game Science responded to requests for comment on the document.

But Chinese gamers have rallied to the game’s defence, with some painting any criticism of China’s first “Triple A” title — some of it focusing on the lack of diversity in the game — as evidence of foreign bias.

“Feminists have always tried to achieve their anti-China goals by smearing and suppressing traditional Chinese culture, but I believe they will definitely fail,” read a post on Weibo, an X-like platform, which defended the game on Wednesday.

Other Chinese social media users also targeted reviews by foreign media that awarded scores considered low.

A review by Canada-based Screen Rant was ridiculed for marking the game down for “lacking in inclusivity and diversity”.

“How can it be lacking diversity when it has so many monsters?” read one Weibo comment under a post about Screen Rant’s score of 3 out of 5.

Another post accused foreign gaming review platforms of “joining the ranks of those smearing China”.

“Seeing that China has released a hugely successful game, they start relentlessly pushing ideologies like LGBTQ and feminism,” the user added.

The game remains one of the most played on Steam, with a peak of more than 2.2 million concurrent players since its release Tuesday.

Portugal seeks EU help as wildfire threatens UNESCO-listed forest


By AFP
August 21, 2024

More than 100 firefighters are battling the blaze on two main fronts on the island - Copyright AFP Helder Santos

Portugal on Wednesday appealed to EU partners for assistance in fighting a wildfire on the Atlantic island of Madeira that has raged for a week and threatened a UNESCO-listed forest.

The country will shortly trigger the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to bolster firefighting efforts with two Canadair water bomber planes, a government source told the Lusa news agency.

The head of the regional government, Miguel Albuquerque, said 60 extra firefighters and first aid specialists had arrived from the Portuguese mainland on top of 76 already sent since the wildfire started on Wednesday last week.

The fire had burned 4,392 hectares (10,850 acres) of land up to Tuesday, the European Union’s Copernicus observatory said on the X social media platform. It added that more than 950 hectares had burned in the previous 24 hours.

Regional civil protection chief Antonio Nunes told RTP public television that the flames had touched a part of the Laurissilva forest, the largest surviving laurel forest, that is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. He said the damage was not significant.

More than 100 firefighters battled the blaze on two main fronts on the island which is traditionally packed with summer tourists at this time, the civil protection service said in a statement.

Fierce winds that have fuelled the flames have also disrupted operations at the island’s main airport at Funchal. But its management said the site was working normally this week.

The fire started in the Ribeira Brava district and spread to the nearby Camara de Lobos and Ponta do Sol districts in the southern part of the island.

About 200 people were evacuated from their homes to avoid smoke inhalation, but most have since returned.

Authorities said no house had been destroyed, nor any injury reported, but some firefighters had symptoms of exhaustion.

Thousands of hectares of vegetation were lost in a wildfire last year and at least three people were killed in a 2016 wildfire near the main city of Funchal.

Volcanic eruption grounds flights in New Zealand


By AFP
August 21, 2024

Volcanic ash from an eruption at the White Island volcano grounded some flights in New Zealand on Thursday - Copyright GNS SCIENCE/AFP Handout

Ryland JAMES

A volcanic eruption belched a plume of ash that grounded flights in New Zealand on Thursday, with government scientists warning it could continue venting for “weeks to months” to come.

It is the same White Island volcano that erupted in 2019, killing 22 people.

The island, once popular with tourists, lies about 50 kilometres (31 miles) off New Zealand’s North Island, and 200 kilometres from Auckland, the country’s largest city.

National carrier Air New Zealand said 10 flights had been cancelled early Thursday as volcanic ash drifted across flight paths.

An airline spokesperson told AFP that flights had resumed after the ash in the surrounding air space dissipated.

Satellite images showed “minor eruptive activity” started earlier this month, research institute GNS Science said in a monitoring bulletin.

They believed it was part of the “typical eruptive cycles” documented on White Island, also known as Whakaari to the country’s Indigenous Maori language.

“This activity could continue for some time, weeks to months,” they warned.

Scientists said residents on New Zealand’s main islands might smell volcanic gas or suffer mild irritation to their eyes or throats, although impacts would be minor.

New Zealand raised its volcanic alert level earlier this month to three, out of a maximum of five levels.

Tours have been banned on White Island since the 2019 eruption. The island’s closure has also had an impact on scientists’ work.

“The biggest issue with Whakaari at the moment is the number of unknowns with the lack of monitoring on the island due to the 2019 eruption and restricted access preventing the repair of seismic and geodetic networks,” said volcanologist Simon Barker from Wellington’s Victoria University.

“This makes it difficult to place the ongoing activity within the context of past eruptive episodes and to assess how the system is changing.

“Gas flights, drone footage and ash emissions all suggest that magma is very close to the surface and, therefore, this activity could continue for some time.”

Volcanic ash wreaks havoc with plane engines, an earth sciences expert has said.

“Ash in volcanic plumes is considered a hazard to aeroplanes because it is sucked into their engines, potentially clogging fuel lines, sticking onto engine surfaces and eroding parts,” said volcanologist Adrian Pittari from the University of Waikato.

“It can also interfere with electrical and computer systems, infiltrate cabin space and reduce visibility.

“The level of ash concentration in the atmosphere and the flight time in affected airspace are important considerations.”

The academic cited cases from the 1980s when Boeing 747 jet planes temporarily lost all engine power after flying through concentrated ash plumes in Alaska and Indonesia.

A global network of Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres monitors ash plumes and weather patterns, informing the aviation industry about airborne ash hazards.

“This helps airlines to plan flight paths and cancellations in areas of volcanic eruptions,” Pittari added.

Australian penguin dies, ending famous ‘same-sex power couple’

By AFP
August 21, 2024

A celebrated Australian penguin famous for raising chicks as part of an unlikely same-sex couple has died, a Sydney aquarium said on Thursday.

Male gentoo penguins Sphen and Magic caught the attention of zookeepers, and then the world, when they built a nest of pebbles together in 2018.

They were eventually given live eggs to incubate from other penguin couples, hatching chick Sphengic in 2018 and Clancy two years later.

Sealife Aquarium said Sphen — the older partner in the “same-sex” penguin “power couple” — had died just shy of turning 12, considered a long life in captivity.

Sphen and Magic were adopted as gay icons in Australia and further abroad, inspiring a float at the Sydney Mardi Gras parade and featuring in the Netflix sitcom Atypical.

But they also had their critics, with some in conservative circles saying the penguins were unwittingly being used to push a political agenda.

Unlike many mammal species, male and female penguins take on the same parenting roles, and share parental duties 50-50.

Same-sex couples between both males and females are not unheard of, although they are often short-lived in the wild.

It was not the first time same-sex penguin couples had adopted eggs in captivity, with a handful of zoos worldwide reporting similar cases.

In 2009, two male penguins — Z and Vielpunkt — successfully hatched and reared a chick that was rejected by its heterosexual parents at a zoo in Berlin.

Before them came Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at a zoo in New York who were spotted frequently trying to mate with each other.

Fragile but unbroken, Afghan glassblowers refuse to quit

By AFP
August 21, 2024

Afghan glassblower Ghulam Sakhi Saifi crafts glassware at his traditional workshop in the western city of Herat - Copyright GNS SCIENCE/AFP Handout

Joe Stenson and Qubad Wali

Seated in front of a searing furnace, Ghulam Sakhi Saifi teases forth sinews of molten blue glass — the guardian of an Afghan glassblowing trade refusing to break with tradition.

“This is our art, our inheritance. It has fed us for a long time,” he told AFP, resting from the work that has singed his knuckles and calloused his palms.

“We are trying to make sure it is not forgotten. If we do not pass it down, it will disappear from the whole world,” said Saifi, who guesses his age is around 50.

Glassblowing in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat is an ancient craft. Saifi says it has run in his family for about three centuries.

The last two furnaces in the windswept metropolis near the border with Iran are in his family home and a mud-and-straw shed with a holey roof in the shadow of Herat’s citadel.

– ‘Slow suffocation’ –

Saifi now lights one of the furnaces only once a month — eking out around $30 from his stock of cups, plates and candleholders after expensive wood for fuel, dyes and other raw materials are accounted for.

He attributes the dramatic downturn to the exodus of already low numbers of foreign customers during the Covid-19 pandemic followed by the 2021 Taliban takeover, which saw many diplomats and aid workers pack up and leave.

Cheaper Chinese-made imports have also dented demand.

“There have been times when we haven’t worked for three months — we sit at home forever,” he said.

“Locals have no use for these products, for the price they would first think to buy two loaves of bread for their children.”

But when the furnace is lit, Saifi is in his element.

With a crude kitchen knife and a blowpipe he pulls glowing globs of glass out of the mud furnace and inflates them into household wares.

Unlike in the past, when they used quartz, the glassblowers now use easier-to-find recycled bottles shattered into shards and superheated back into their liquid state.

The green and blue pieces cool into charmingly imperfect shapes, shot through with air bubbles, and are sold from clattering piles in shops in Herat and the capital Kabul for around $3 each.

Outside the shed it is already 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) but stepping over the threshold is like being gripped by a sudden fever.

“Sometimes we really feel the heat, I think I am being slowly suffocated,” Saifi said. “But this is our inheritance, we are used to it.

“Today is a bad day, but maybe it will get better in the future. Maybe the day after tomorrow, we hope to God.”

– ‘Craft needs to endure’ –

A gaggle of boys and teenagers assists Saifi in his work, but it is growing hard to tempt the younger generation into a trade they view as a dead end.

His eldest son became an expert in the craft only to abandon it for migrant labour over the border in Iran.

Two cousins who learned to blow glass also saw no future and downed their tools.

His middle son, 18-year-old Naqibullah, vows he will continue the trade, though it’s not clear how.

Before the Taliban takeover there was still enough demand for three days of work a week — a distant prospect for the young man who shares shifts with his father on the rare occasion they light the furnaces.

“We hope that there is a future and that day by day things will get better,” Naqibullah said.

“Even if we’re not making much money the craft needs to endure,” he added. “The art of making things by hand needs to be preserved. We can’t let this skill disappear.”

Play decline: Why the UK government must invest in youth

By Dr. Tim Sandle
August 21, 2024
DIGITAL JOURNAL

A children's activity area. — Image by © Tim Sandle.

Considerable research indicates that play areas enrich the lives of children. Their decline is one of the reasons for the growing physical and mental health issues among the young people in our communities.

Data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that, in the UK, one in eight children live in a household with no garden. This means thousands of families rely on safe public play areas for outdoor exercise, enrichment and time to bond with their children. Furthermore, new data gathered by Aggregate Industries reveals that 793 play parks have been closed down in the last 10 years.

In addition to the closures, there have been 28,734 reports of vandalism and 2,786 injuries in play parks over the last 5 years.

This is in part a symptom of falling budgets, resulting in the failure to protect our public play areas. Over a decade of decline has hit the North and the Midlands the hardest. Budgets have been cut by more than 40% and, in the most extreme cases, by 80 percent in Sunderland, Gloucester and Barnsley.

This decline has occurred over 11 years, transpiring under the previous government’s 14-year tenure in office. With the Labour Party and a new Prime Minister now at the helm, now is the time to demand a new direction and highlight the importance of play area renewal in the UK.

To discover more, Digital Journal heard from the educational play experts at Playdale Playgrounds for their insight on the current state of UK playgrounds and what we should be demanding from the new government when it comes to the future of play in our communities.

What is ‘play decline?’

Play decline is the term given to the deterioration of traditional childhood play. Today’s young people are missing out on the enriching outdoor and physical activities that are crucial in socialisation – helping to develop the key skills of creativity, teamwork and curiosity.

There are concerns about children spending too much time in front of iPads and televisions, but with a decline in access to dedicated play spaces, these concerns have been upgraded from a cultural concern to a health epidemic.

Childhood obesity in the UK has risen significantly over the last 18 years, with House of Commons Library data revealing 234 per 1,000 10-11-year-olds are now obese, with 143 classed as overweight. It is no coincidence that these statistics have worsened as our playgrounds have declined.

Why are playgrounds important?

Playgrounds are crucial to the health of children. UNICEF has found that children who play regularly with their parents are less likely to develop anxiety, depression, aggression and sleep problems.

This problem is exacerbated when there is no reasonable access to playgrounds or parks for families. Parks near new housing developments, most commonly bought by younger families, have shrunk by a whopping 40 percent in the last 20 years – hindering the mental and physical development of children.

Playing outdoors develops confidence, independence and self-esteem in children. When playgrounds are up to scratch, it gives children a safe environment to push their boundaries, become aware of their limits and experience challenges in play.

A lack of outside space means a lack of opportunity to develop these essential skills, a scenario which can be avoided if we fix the dire state of UK playgrounds.

The current state of UK playgrounds

UK playgrounds have crumbled over the last 10 years, with budgets falling by a huge £350 million under the last government. For comparison, The Guardian found that the three-year average spend on England’s parks and open spaces stood at £1.4 billion in 2010-11. By 2021-22, this figure had dropped to just under £1 billion in real terms.

The poor condition of playgrounds is blighting our open spaces, turning parks into no-go areas for almost half of the UK’s children. In fact, 49 percent of children never or rarely visit playgrounds, according to new research.

This is unsurprising, especially when you consider the number of accidents from unsafe conditions – mainly in the areas most affected by budget cuts. In Gloucestershire, where budgets were cut by 80 percent, 168 accidents and complaints were reported between 2019 to 2022 –6 percent of the UK total. In Greater Manchester, 174 were reported – a further 6.2 percent.

How can the new government reverse the decline?

By reversing the cuts to public green spaces and infrastructure, the new government can make public parks and play areas an immediate health issue to be addressed before the situation worsens deeper.

The new government must also make parks a safer place where parents are encouraged to take their children, not a place that parents should be worried about. In October 2023, the previous government found that 30,000 hours of extra police patrols helped reduce antisocial behaviour by up to 30 percent in some areas. To stop parks from becoming areas where antisocial behaviour thrives, the new government must stick to their manifesto pledge to increase neighbourhood policing to take parks back from those who do not use them as they were intended.

Dr Amanda Gummer, Independent Chair of the Association of Play Industries, has been the first to take action in raising the crisis of the UK’s playgrounds to the new government. Gummer has requested formal meetings with the Prime Minister, Health Minister, Education Minister and the Minister for Housing, Communities & Local Government. The letters she sent to the government highlight the crucial importance of these dedicated spaces for our communities, prioritising universal access to community play and emphasising the urgent need for policy changes.

Rachel Reeves, the new Chancellor, will be announcing the first Labour government budget on 30th October. This gives the public three months to voice their concerns to their local MP, demanding for action to be taken to save our local parks and play areas.

Gamer gathering opens in Germany with ‘Borderlands’ news

By AFP
August 21, 2024

The "Borderlands" game announcement kicked off Gamescom in Germany

 - Copyright AFP/File STR

Kilian Fichou

Hundreds of thousands of video game fans and industry figures were converging Wednesday on Germany’s Cologne for the sector’s biggest trade show.

Gamescom kicked off late Tuesday with the surprise announcement of a new edition of the “Borderlands” franchise, to be released next year, as well as more details of the next “Call of Duty”.

Industry heavyweights Microsoft and China’s Tencent are both joining the show, but Japanese giants Sony and Nintendo are staying away — no reason has been given for their absence.

The event comes at a tricky time for an industry worth around $180 billion (160 billion euros) a year, according to figures from the Newzoo analyst firm.

Sales are far from the peaks reached in the pandemic, smaller studios are struggling to survive and big publishers are imposing dramatic cost-cutting exercises with thousands of workers being laid off.

– ‘Mind-bending conspiracy’ –

But that did not dampen the enthusiasm on an opening night with plenty of surprise announcements.

“Borderlands 4, really, I wasn’t expecting it,” said German biologist Sarah Nobbe, one of more than 5,000 packed into the arena on Tuesday.

The game’s producers have promised that players will “blast their way through hordes of enemies” in the latest edition of Borderlands, a franchise that was adapted for cinema this year.

The makers of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” took to the stage to promise “blockbuster action” in a game set in the early 90s — “a time of global turmoil and uncertainty”.

“You’ll unravel a mind-bending conspiracy,” said developer Jon Zuk, with the game scheduled for release on October 25.

Microsoft, hoping to steal a march on its competitors, teased details of “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle”, published by its subsidiary Bethesda and due for release December 9.

However, the game makers announced after a period of exclusivity on Microsoft’s Xbox and PC it would be available on Sony’s PlayStation next year.

Although plenty of other games are available across consoles, Indiana Jones is the biggest to be released in this way since Microsoft announced a change of strategy in February.

Analysts say publishers can no longer afford to tie down games to a single platform, as console sales are falling and competition for players is hotting up.

– ‘Love letter’ –

The opening event also widened its scope to include streaming and film news, with Tim Miller, director of 2016 superhero movie “Deadpool”, announcing a new anthology series on Amazon Prime in December.

He told the audience “Secret Level” would include 15 episodes based on video games including “Pac-Man” and “Sifu”.

“It’s our love letter to the games,” Miller said, while choking back tears.

The announcements set the scene for the show, which opens to the public from Thursday to Sunday after a day reserved for industry figures.

Organisers expect more than 350,000 visitors.